No further Shetland renewables development until there is real community benefit – Shetland Liberal Democrats 

Scottish Liberal Democrats have today at their Spring Conference passed a motion calling for a strengthening of community benefit rules for renewable energy developments. Northern Isles MP Alistair Carmichael led the motion, stating that “there should be no further development in Shetland”, until the Scottish government and the UK governments agree on a better scheme that will cut energy bills for people in areas with major renewables projects.

Introducing the motion, Orkney and Shetland MP, Alistair Carmichael said:

“If we are going to bring communities with us to tackle the climate crisis, then we have to get real about what we mean by community benefit. In terms of the sums that are involved it is simply “beads to the natives”. The problem for the companies that are handing out these beads – or the governments that tell them how many or what the colour of the beads should be – is that the natives are not stupid. We can see that we are being short-changed and we are not going to stand for it any longer.

“So what we want to see is money that is going to shift the dial on the bills that are being paid by my constituents that are forcing them into fuel poverty. The only community benefit that I am interested in is a benefit that is going to reduce people's bills. It might be a fund, it might be a tariff, but it has got to put money directly into the bank accounts of the people who need it most.

“If it helps to concentrate the mind when we are told that these things are all awfully difficult to achieve, then let me see this: there should be no further development in Shetland, until the Scottish government and the UK governments get their heads together and work out what that scheme is going to be – how they are going to cut the bills of Shetlanders who host these future developments.

“This is not a question of NIMBYism. This is not those who say “not in my backyard”. We already have the turbines. We have something in the region of 580MW installed capacity and more planned – and that is only onshore generation. We have appearing on the horizon offshore wind, where the Crown Estate Scotland and the Scottish government seek to displace local fishing effort from their traditional grounds in order to make way for offshore development.

“That again is unacceptable. We as a party were instrumental in devolving the Crown Estate from London to Edinburgh, but unfortunately we only seem to have devolved the management of the seabed – we have not done enough to change the culture.

“So if Shetland's waters are to be used to power the rest of the United Kingdom, then Shetland should be the first to see the benefit.”

Emma Macdonald has campaigned for many years for a “Shetland Tariff” where local people would pay less for their electricity, and welcomed the Liberal Democrat motion being passed, saying:

“Having worked with Alistair on this issue for some time I am glad that we have had this motion passed today by conference.

“Enough is enough.  Shetland has already done its share of heavy lifting in moving to renewables but there has to be more in it for us.  It is obscene that while we generate so much energy for the whole country we have the highest levels of fuel poverty of anywhere in the country.  For years ministers have spoken about “community benefit” but we do not see enough of it here.  No more development should be consented until we have a Shetland tariff.”

Shetland MSP, Beatrice Wishart also spoke in favour of the motion, saying:

“Scottish Liberal Democrats have been campaigning for years about the low rates of community benefit from these projects.

“Shetland is being industrialised and it is a growing concern. We see more projects, from the vast array of the Viking windfarm to the pylons marching through the Tingwall valley, to battery storage and the ammonium plant. The reality is that the community benefit from these projects is far too low. The time has come that islanders are feeling this is far too much. We host it; we must benefit from it.”